


The Queen of Love and Beauty

by Serena90



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 04:37:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2719004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serena90/pseuds/Serena90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternative take on what Lyanna Stark was thinking when Rhaegar Targaryen crowned her his Queen of Love and Beauty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Queen of Love and Beauty

**Author's Note:**

> In this alternative take, Lyanna isn't as naive as in cannon.

The victorious Prince steered his gorgeous horse towards the grades of spectators, a beautiful crown of winter roses in his hands. She felt a strange pride in the fact that the flowers were northern, the North was rarely associated with delicate beauty but blue roses were her favourite. Lyanna smiled, it would be like in a beautiful song! The handsome prince would crown the beautiful princess the Queen of Love and Beauty. She had always adored love songs and she was so excited that she would finally see the story unfold before her eyes.

Lyanna awaited in anticipation as the Silver Prince approached the royal podium, he looked so elegant and handsome in his silver armor. There wasn't even a bent or scratch in the elaborate armor. Princess Elia was sitting elegantly, her skin was golden like the sun. She had a small smile on her comely face and her delicate hands folded on her lap. She was wearing a truly stunning gown in bright colours and an exquisite crown. She looked exactly like a princess of a story. Her exotic beauty only made her even more beautiful in Lyanna's eyes.

However, her dreams were dashed when Prince Rhaegar passed the royal podium. For a moment Lyanna believed, the Prince's horse must have walked pass without his leave. But he wasn't doing anything to correct his course, nor did he seem annoyed at his rebellious nature. Lyanna knew about horses and it dawned that the well-bred steed was only following directions. She couldn’t understand it. Why didn’t he give the crown to his wife? Surely he couldn’t mean to give it to someone else? Princess Elia was beautiful and she was his wife.

Like most nobles in the tournament, her grey eyes darted to the royal podium. She saw Princess Elia’s face tighten. Her brother, Prince Oberyn Martell was seated next to her and his face was dark and angry. The entire court seemed to be quiet, waiting to see who merited the crown more than his own wife in Prince Rhaegar’s eyes. The Dornish section of the event seemed quite outraged at the slight, but others looked strangely elated at the unexpected situation.

Prince Rhaegar Targaryen was going through the grades, he was approaching her section slowly. She wondered who he would stop for. The next section was that of the Tyrells, which was filled with beautiful ladies. And then, the Silver Prince paused in front of the Northern section. Lyanna waited for the Prince's mistress to approach him. Soon, she realized that the only woman in the this section was her. She looked at him perplexed. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

She looked at his handsome face, trying to see a signal that the crown dangling from his hand wasn't for her. His piercing violet eyes were fixed on her and he extended his arm to give the beautiful crown of roses. He couldn’t mean _her_? They had barely spoken! They didn’t know each other! How could she be _his_ Queen of Love and Beauty?

What should she do? Lyanna had never been courted. She didn’t know how to react to a suitor giving gifts. She had been brought up in the safe Winterfell, where all proposals were sent directly to his father. Not even her fiancé, Robert Baratheon, had courted her. She didn't know how to deny or accept gifts gracefully. She had never expected to need to know how, it was very well-known she was engaged to Lord Robert Baratheon of Storm End.

Her breath paused and her grey eyes sought the royal podium for guidance. This time, she didn’t see Princess Elia with her stoic stance or Prince Oberyn with his furious brown eyes. Her eyes moved to the royal pair. She saw mad king Aerys, with an amused smile on his face and his perverse violet eyes staring at her. Like any adventurous child, she had heard rumours that she shouldn't have heard. She knew that the king wasn't right, that he was prone to temper tantrums, only his temper tantrums resulted in deaths.

Her response was taking too long. She couldn’t keep him waiting. She had to accept the crown. She stood, feeling like her legs were made out of wood. Lyanna approached the edge of the grades and accepted the crown with as much grace as she could.

She felt cold and numb as the first hesitant applauses started. As she sat down again, she knew she had made a great mistake. Everyone would believe that she was his mistress. Would Robert Baratheon even want to marry her? She peeked at her fiancé. The man was furious. It wasn't that she actually wished to marry Robert Baratheon, but she knew that was what she was supposed to do. How would it look if Robert broke off their engagement? The Stark name would be disgraced.

She had believed Prince Rhaegar Targaryen to be like a knight out of a song. He was undeniably handsome and his harp playing the other night had even made her shed a couple of tears. His performance in the tournament had only elevated him in her esteem. But how could she be the man she had built in her head when he had slighted her wife in such a manner?

Robert had a bastard girl and had leered at a maid in front of her. But wasn’t crowning as Queen of Love and Beauty another woman instead of his wife even worse? He hadn’t done it discreetly, he had done it in front of the entire kingdom without a care for Lyanna’s reputation. Furthermore, the Prince was married, Robert was only engaged.

Why had he given her his crown? She couldn’t understand it. If he had to slight his wife, it would make more sense to give it to his mistress. And she wasn’t his mistress so why had he given it to her? If he wanted to give it to a beauty surely another one should have been chosen.

Lyanna had seen Cersei Lannister or Ashara Dayne. Those were the great beauties of their generation. Lyanna had a pretty face, but she couldn’t hope to compare to the exquisite beauty of Cersei Lannister with her golden perfectly brushed hair, her cared for skin and intricate gowns or Ashara Dayne’s dark exotic beauty and her enticing violet eyes.

She was sure that before today, when anyone thought of the Queen of Love and Beauty they had thought of them. It would even make more sense to crown Catelyn Tully, with her fascinating red hair and pretty blue eyes, than her. Lyanna had a pretty face. But her hair wasn’t brushed until it shone and her skin didn’t glow since she rarely used creams for it. Her hands were feminine but rough from sword playing and horse ridding. Her figure wasn’t as voluptuous as Cersei Lannister’s or any of the Tyrell girls. She was lean and barely had any bust or hips yet.

She also wasn’t skilled in the art of seduction. The ladies in court seemed to know exactly the way to say things and the way to move to make it more attractive. They would pronounce it that way or the other and make the men turn into imbeciles. They would walk by and all the men’s eyes would follow them. Lyanna could win a horse race, with her ferocious riding. She definitely didn’t ride by side, like most ladies. She laughed freely and openly, perhaps too boisterously for a lady. Her language wasn’t coy and elegant. For the life of her, she couldn’t look sensual and trying made her feel stupid.

The only thing that marked her a lady was her love for songs. Other than that, she was like a boy in a woman’s body. Her stitching was barely passable and her singing wasn’t decent enough to entertain any guests.

She knew she wasn’t without charm. After all, Robert Baratheon would openly proclaim to be in love with her. However, the Stag Lord liked her _because_ she was wild and unlady-like. She couldn’t imagine elegant Prince Rhaegar, the same prince called Silver Prince, to be attracted to the same qualities.

Lyanna didn’t understand why she had been chosen. But she knew it was bad. She knew that Dorne would hate the North now. She knew that the entire court would believe she was Prince Rhaegar’s mistress. She knew it would anger her family and her fiancé.

Most importantly, she knew that Prince Rhaegar hadn’t given her the crown of Queen of Love and Beauty just to slight his wife. In his violet eyes, she had seen something that made her uneasy even if she didn’t know what it was.


End file.
